Off the Record

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As a student of French in high school, I found it somewhat difficult to get a grasp on another language. The verbs, the conjugation, the genders and the literal translations always frustrated me, but the more I learned, the more I could understand the other romance languages–as well as my own. Being a high school student already fluent in one language and learning another, however, is not anywhere near what these kids are going through. They’re trying to get a hold on their native tongue while, at the same time, trying to explain which kind of juice they want to this 22 year old nutbag from the scary place called “America.” Some funny happenings from today’s exhaustive adventure in babysitting. —-I declared today Ambidexterity Day for Ines who didn’t object after I told her that being right-handed made her right brain absolute moosh. After falling down the stairs AND directly into a large flower pot (can you say Anne Geddes?) Oscar amazed me with his rapidly progressing English (the first two days he wouldn’t speak a lick): “Sarah, please you can move I can draw!” when he wanted to draw in the place where I was drawing. “I need a chicken,” when he, well, needed a chicken. “That is the banana of you,” when he was telling me it was my banana. *This one in particular is very fascinating, as most foreign languages don’t have possessives in the form of apostrophes and they use “of,” meaning “de,” instead. It’s all “Casa de Pepe (JG)” or “La ville d’elle.” So, when Oscar wants to say it’s his or hers or mine, he’s saying the direct translation…which I think is just too cute. “Mom goes to work so she can win money,” said by Ines when Oscar asked why mom had to go and the evil American had to stay. Again, this translation issue…the verb “to win” in Spanish (gane) also means “to earn.” So, you can earn at the jackpots and win money if you work hard. Sounds good to me. My favorite, by far–the command sans preposition: “Sarah! Look this, look this!”